


Stage Directions

by elwon



Series: Exeunt'verse [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU
Genre: 2nd person POV, Character Study, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-09-19 12:22:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9440300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elwon/pseuds/elwon
Summary: Dick was born for the spotlight and applause, he knows how to improvise when the script is changed on him.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Companion piece to [Colour Theory](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9389840).

Your name is Dick Grayson and you begin life at Haly's Circus. You're born in a small hospital somewhere in Indianapolis, but you take your first steps in Florida. You master the backflip in California and by the time you've visited New England twice you're swinging high above the ground on the trapeze, your parents by your side.

You train and work hard but you love every moment, surrounded by family, both blood and chosen. With an elephant for a best friend, the smell of popcorn and anticipation in the air, your favourite time is high up in the air, with the bright spotlights and deep shadows of the big top.

Then everything in your life changes with the snap-thud of your parents' death. Gone is the circus with its light and laughter and busy-busy, people all around you. Gone are the trailers and tents and performances and noise. Instead they are replaced by a cold quiet mansion. Bruce and Alfred are good people but it's strange to be around so few.

Then you see the cave, and the car and the computer and the suit. You pull on your costume and the performance begins.

Your partnership works for many years until it doesn't. You can't really pinpoint how and why it's going wrong (you're growing up and Bruce's restrictions chafe more and more) but you find yourself leaving Gotham and in New York with your team. The Manor was home, but Titans Tower feels more like the circus, loud, busy and lively.

You meet Jason Todd by accident on a rare trip back to Gotham. For the first few seconds you wonder who let some kid play dress-up on the streets, until you see him move and you realise that Robin has been recast.

Your meetings with Jason never quite go as well as you hope they will. You do your best to keep your anger at Bruce hidden under the role of mentor (Bruce calls him your brother - you don't feel that role fits just yet). You think Jason buys it, but he's guarded and quick to anger around you most of the time. You've seen him in much better moods, cooking and discussing The Tempest with Alfred and the sunny smile that come out during these relaxed times makes affection unfurl in your chest.

A while later and too soon (too soon) Jason is gone. You find out months later when you come back from an alien world. The space that Jason occupied in your chest feels hollow and things are never quite the same again. Everything is just a little bit off-kilter, the stage directions of your life given a beat too soon or too late.

Life moves on and you move on with it. You break up with Kori, you gain a new little brother (this one you throw your full effort at - you've learnt your lesson with Jason). You almost kill the Joker, if not for Bruce. You get together and break up with Barbara. The world nearly ends several times and you end up in Bludhaven now in the dual role of cop by day and Nightwing by night. (You ignore the possibility of the night shift at your "day" job.)

There's a new player in Gotham, taking over the drug trade and starting a war with Black Mask. You go back to help (no that you've been asked) and you're taken out of play within the night. You hobble around on crutches for a few weeks (you still hate sitting still after all this time), until Alfred reveals the Red Hood is Jason returned. You sit down for a couple of days and fail to understand how your Little Wing is now a villain. But then Jason's life was always a Shakespearian Tragedy.

More time passes and you gain not only a sister but yet another brother, and Jason stops attacking your family. You pray the pit-madness has passed and the hollow aching part of your heart begins to hope. You start running into him on rooftops. Each time you meet you feel like you've stumbled into a play where only Jason knows the script. You get through these nights eventually learning the stage directions.

Jason keeps his helmet on always and in some ways it makes it easier on you, not having to see the hurt and anger on his face, forcing you to pay attention to his body language.) Jason still wears his tension in his shoulders, still goes still and then casual when truly angry. In contrast to most people, a stiff and tense Jason is a good thing. Relaxed and casual means you're in for a beating.

It takes a few tries, but you learn the beats and rhythms of conversation with Jason. Every time you successfully spend time with him, you can't stop the smile spreading across your face, that old affection growing and changing without you noticing. The night he finally takes off his helmet and you see him smirk and smile your heart does flips. By the time you part, you feel like you've got a standing ovation with the spotlight just on you.

It creeps up on you, the love you feel. You push it down, the relationship between you and Jason to new and fragile to rock the boat with revelations of deeper feelings. You keep to the script you've written for the both of you.

You land on a rooftop one night, Jason sat close to the edge. You fold down to sit, glancing at his helmet, resting by his hip. You follow your usual stage directions around Jason. Small talk, gossip from the rest of the family and friends (Jason really only showing interest in yourself, Alfred, Donna and amusingly, Damian), a few pieces of relevant intel on cases he's following, and tonight, Jason's feelings and opinions on the new Voltron reboot. (Jason wants to take the black lion for a spin, and would pay good money to see Alfred and Coran interact.) Dick finds this much more endearing than he knows Jason would be comfortable with.

You make a bad pun, he makes a better one, and the full body smile it provokes make Jason light up. He leans in and you don't lean away. He leans in even closer and you don't lean away. He barely grazes his lips against yours and the feelings you've been pushing down come bubbling up. You never thought he'd want you this way (or at the start, at all). You kiss back, clinging to his shoulders like you're drowning at sea and he's your life raft.

You feel the solid weight of him (he's alive and back!) pressing you down to the rooftop and in the part of your mind not utterly focused on how good it feels, thinks that there is little better than this, flying through air, knowing Jason will catch you.


End file.
